“What really drove me when I spoke up there in Kildare Street on Tuesday was the madness of the decision to cut, take away the phone allowance from people in rural Ireland, living alone, in thatched cottages, with no police station, no post office, nothing.

“And now they won’t even be able to afford their landline. They’re also taking away the bereavement grant – and this is destroying me, so I went up to Kildare Street and I let the words fly.”

Patrick, 72, revealed in his book, Fear of the Collar, My Terrifying Childhood in Artane, how his early years were tainted by the abuse he suffered at an industrial school. He went on to become a baker as soon as he left the institution and worked tirelessly until he had to retire to look after his dying wife.

The brave Balbriggan native, who was also a football referee, says he cannot understand how the state is turning its back on citizens.

“I didn’t get any grants, I worked my back off for my wife and three children in the last recession, in the 1980s.

“I had to work day and night and if I hadn’t saved any money, my family wouldn’t had a home to live in.

“When I stopped working as a baker to take care of my dying wife I didn’t get any payment for that. She was only 53-years-old and she had motor neurone disease and if he hadn’t been for charities, we would not have had any help.

“But now Labour, the party who is supposed to be representing the working people, are taking everything away.”

Patrick admitted he is finding it difficult to cope with the hikes in prescription charges and cuts in allowances.

“I’ve to pay the house tax and the water tax and the bin tax and I’ve got to pay my prescription – I take 11 tablets a day.

“I’ll be down around €135 a month in total and I also have to pay the oil for the central heating. I can’t go to bed owing people all this money.”

Patrick was particularly critical of Taoiseach Enda Kenny and his pre-election agenda.

He said: “Enda Kenny the man is a mind-boggling idiot and he’s running this country. He made promises and he had no intentions of keeping any of them. The man is a thundering liar.”